How to look up old location history on iphone

Table of Contents Show

It’s called the Significant Locations list, and you probably didn’t know it existed
Open the 'Settings' menu on your iPhone by tapping the icon on your home screen.
Choose 'Privacy.'
Tap 'Location Services.'
Scroll down to the bottom of the list of apps that use Location Services and select 'System Services.'
Press the 'Significant Locations' option.
After authenticating with your password or Face ID, you'll see a list of cities and towns you've recently visited.
Tap one of the cities to view a map showing all of the locations within that city that you've recently visited.
If you want to delete your entire location history, go back to the 'Significant Locations' list, scroll down to the bottom of the list, and press 'Clear History.'
To turn off 'Significant Locations,' toggle the slider at the top of the 'Significant Locations' list.
Can you look up old locations on iPhone?
How do I find past location history?
How do I see full history on Apple Maps?

Jack Cohen

Feb 26, 2019

5 min read

Member-only

Your iPhone Has a Hidden List of Every Location You’ve Been

It’s called the Significant Locations list, and you probably didn’t know it existed

Hiding in not-so-plain sight, deep within the depths of your iPhone’s settings (seven layers deep, to be exact) is a level of location tracking that very few iPhone users are aware of and probably won’t feel comfortable with.

By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Many of the apps and services you use on a daily basis are probably using your location data in one way or another — whether it's to provide transit directions or to serve up recommendations for nearby points of interest.

On the iPhone, you can view a list of each individual location that's been logged through Location Services, the feature that enables Apple and third-party apps to gather location data to provide services like those mentioned above. Apple determines your device's approximate location through GPS and Bluetooth signals as well as crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspots and cell tower locations.

This list of places, called Significant Locations, is encrypted end-to-end and cannot be read by Apple. You can also turn it off in the iPhone's Settings menu.

Here's a look at how to view and edit the list of locations tracked through Location Services.